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Tesla Overcoming Chip Shortages that Are Crushing Other Carmakers
Toyota is reducing its 2022 car production target ti 8.5 million cars. This Toyota target is down from 9 million in January 2022 and down from 10.7 million in 2019, 9.2 million in 2020
Tesla can use more sources for its chips because Tesla programmers can write firmware in 2 weeks to let them use different suppliers for different chips. There are five major categories of auto chips. There are microcontrollers (MCUs), analog, sensors, power chips.
Microcontrollers for powertrain, chassis & safety, infotainment, body & convenience, ADAS/autonomy
(15 to 100 per car)
Analog for power management, BUS transceivers, RF, radar, motor drivers, display drivers, LED drivers, etc. (hundreds per car)
Power discrete for xEV, chassis, powertrain (tens per car)
High end chips for LIDAR and self driving and driver assist AI.
Tesla created a unified computer architecture used in its cars. This reduced the number of MCUs needed from 80 to about 20.
Tesla has their own design for their self driving chip.
Analog chips shortages could last into 2024. The chip shortages in 2022 and 2023 could mean another 15 million cars are not able to be built. There was 71 million instead of 80 million cars build in 2021 and this could be the same in 2022and another 5 million cars are not able to be built in 2023.